Brown is the New Green
Print is not dead! It is not going away! In fact, until we can “beam” a product fully formed direct to someone’s living room, buying and selling of goods will mean packaging – and packaging printing – will be around for a long time.
A recent tour of AllpakTrojan showed me that proper packaging is attractive, effective, efficient, and environmentally friendly. Packaging, it turns out, involves an entire eco-system; design, engineering, and technology.
What is a “package?” It’s more than the pretty retail box that motivates a buyer; a package contains, protects, preserves, transports, informs, and sells. Notice that “sell” is at the end, not the beginning. A package is, first and foremost, a container that protects and preserves the contents during transport to the end user.
No matter how you look at it, getting milk from the cow to the kitchen requires safe and secure packaging.
Corrugated – Recycled and Recyclable
Corrugated paper – or cardboard, as we call it today – first consisted of a single-sided board, where pleated or “fluted” paper was attached to a piece of heavy facing paper. Modern cardboard was patented in 1874 when a liner was added that effectively sandwiched the fluted paper between two sheets.
AllpakTrojan converts papers of various levels of recycled content into corrugated board on a machine that automates the 130+ year old process by affixing the fluted paper to the facing and liner with liquid starch. No solvents are used, making corrugated board one of the most environmentally friendly substrates available. Corrugated paper contains a very high level of recycled post consumer waste content and is 100% recyclable.
For Precor, a manufacturer of high-end exercise equipment, AllpakTrojan has developed corrugated trays to replace wooden trays on which treadmills and other equipment are assembled.
By substituting corrugated braces and padding, Precor has eliminated foam padding and plastic bagging. Just three small pieces of foam that fit into one hand remain and the entire shipping container now consists of a single completely recyclable material.
Money-saving AND Environmentally Friendly
AllpakTrojan’s structural designers created an award-winning packaging system that eliminated all wood and foam in shipping cartons and reduced both the size and weight of the container. Not only does the 100% recyclable container cost less, weigh less, and allow for more containers on a pallet it saves the customer nearly $120,000 a year.
An added benefit resulted from the elimination of all plastics in the shipping carton.
In the past various fittings and small parts had been rolled in bubble pack and placed on top of the contents. As a result customers occasionally discarded them by mistake and had to request duplication.
The new packing system includes “wells” under the cover cap where the fittings and parts are shipped, eliminating accidental loss.
Green Inside and Out
AllpakTrojan takes environmental sustainability seriously. Projects are produced with appropriate packaging required to protect and transport products using corrugated papers and boards – all of which are 100% recyclable. The plant is efficient and waste of all types are collected; paper waste is either baled and put back into the manufacturing stream or composted. Inks are filtered and the water is returned to the water treatment system clean while the solids are compacted for waste management. Even the air is filtered and recirculated.
Employees serve on lean, green and quality teams to identify more opportunities for efficiency and waste management. And AllpakTrojan participates in a government program that supplies vehicles for companies whose employees carpool or “van pool.”
Read More/See More…
Read what Wayne Millage, President and General Manager, and Alyson Meade, Sustainability Coordinator, had to say about the company’s initiatives in Packaging – Not Just a Pretty Face. You can also view a tour of the company as a slide show.
